Evergreen: the story of a girl who liked plants
by Rather.Unusual
Summary: A shy university student gets more than she bargained for when she and a friend begin experimenting with dark elemental magic.
1. Gotham University

Author's Note: Yeah, It's a Batman fic. It's about Poison Ivy and it's extremely non-canon. Please read and review, critiques would be nice but don't flame me for whatever stupid reason. Plzthnxmate.

**Evergreen**

Chapter One: Gotham University

Pamela Isley.

It was true, the name _didn't_ fit her.

Pam paused look at herself in one of the mirrors lining the corridors of Gotham University as she made her way to her first botany lecture. She didn't pause for long, because class started in 5 minutes and she hated being late. She pushed her coke-bottle glasses up her nose, brushed a long strand of bright orange hair behind her left ear and kept moving.

She didn't like all the noise here; she wasn't used to it. The click-clack of shoes against the stone floor, the shuffling of pages, the sound of a million different conversations at once; the cacophony was enough to give Pam a splitting headache. She had never been to a proper school before this, and so far she didn't like it. If only you could get a botany degree online, life would be so much easier. Pam pictured herself back home in Washington, sitting outside on the porch with her tablet laptop, surrounded by trees and fully at peace. That was what school should be like.

But no, here she was, on a scholarship to Gotham University, in a big, dark and gloomy city on the other side of the country. The university was nice enough, but the city was too enclosed for her liking.

Why did it have to be Gotham, anyway? Why put one of the country's top rated universities in one of its worst cities? All of the stories Pam had heard about Gotham were warnings. The city was full of murderers, gangs and corruption.

She checked her watch and groaned.

10:30.

She was late. And going the wrong way. This was Pamela's problem- she was always drifting off and loosing herself in thought. This wouldn't be the first time it had caused problems.

She lifted her bookbag back onto her shoulder, turned around and started running, carefully dodging other students as she crossed the courtyard. The beads on the cord around her waist jingled behind her as she ran. She hoped her professor wouldn't be too mad at her. It was a big place, easy to get lost, and she was new to the city….

_**WHAM!**_

Pam's bookbag hit the ground with a loud _clunk_ and her books scattered out across the floor. She felt a pain in her chest where she had fallen, and slowly pushed herself up from the ground. She took two deep breaths in before realising her glasses had fallen off. She got down on her hands and knees, frantically feeling around for the metal frames against the stone tiles.

"Shit." She hissed. Her glasses weren't exactly a fashion statement, but if she didn't wear them she was close to blind.

"Are you okay?"

Pamela looked up. The person speaking sounded male, but appeared to her as a large multicoloured blob.

"Yeah." She lied, smiling weakly. "Yeah, yeah…I just um…."

"Tripped?" the boy asked.

Pamela nodded. "I'm beginning to re-consider the practicality of running in flip-flops."

He laughed. "I think you dropped these."

She the familiar feeling of wire and glass in her outstretched hand.

"Thanks." Pamela said with relief, pushing the glasses up her nose. "I'm blind without these." She laughed.

She looked again at the boy, who was currently collecting up some pages that had fallen out of her portfolio. He was tall, with short brown hair and hooded grey eyes. He looked nice, or at least nicer than anyone else Pam had encountered in Gotham.

"Here you go." He said with a smile, handing Pam her folder. She hurriedly shoved it in her bookbag, stood up, and brushed off her dark green tunic.

"Thanks." She said with a blush and a quick smile. "Hey, could you tell me where Room 124 is, by any chance?"

"Sure." The boy said. "That's near where I have my next class. I'll show you."

He motioned for her to follow him down the corridor.

"My name's Wes, by the way." He said. "Welcome to Gotham."

Pamela laughed grimly.

"That's the first real welcome I've gotten since I left Bremerton." She paused. "That's in Washington. The state, not the city."

"Yeah, I know." Wes said. "That's near Seattle, isn't it?"

Pamela nodded.

"My name's Pamela by the way."

"Really?" Wes asked. "You don't look like a Pamela. You look more like a….Terra, or Summer, or Ivy. Something…earthy like that."

"I get that allot." Pamela pushed open the door of the laboratory. "Well, nice talking to you." She waved shyly and went into class.


	2. Harley

Chapter Two: Harley

Chapter Two: Harley

Pamela sat at her table in the campus café, absent-mindedly poking around the straw in her glass of orange juice as she skimmed over an article from a scientific research journal.

"Whatcha reading?" Pam's room mate asked through a mouthful of hot chips, leaning around the table to get a look at Pam's laptop.

"Oh, nothing Harley." Pamela shrugged. "Just some research for this essay I have to write about bio-fuels."

"I heard that's a total scam."

"It is." Pam laughed grimly.

Harley Quinzelle shrugged and wiped her greasy fingers on the sides of her black and red checked dress. She was about a year older than Pamela, and was currently majoring in Psychology. Unlike Pamela, Harley didn't look or act like someone suited to her chosen career path. She had short strawberry-blonde hair, a strong Queens accent and a near-fatal addiction to fried foods, which isn't how most people picture psychologists. Pamela tried to imagine her in an office, but she couldn't.

Pam and Harley had not known each other long, but they became fast friends. They were both very intelligent, they had similar quirky behaviours and liked the same kind of music, but they had very different views of the world, which made for interesting discussions.

"Did you know that almost half of the Amazon jungle has been cleared to make room for soybean plantations?" Pamela said, adjusting her glasses as she read.

"Serious?" Harley asked. "What do they use soybeans for? Y'know, aside from like…soy sauce….and stuff…"

"Bio fuels, apparently." Pam explained. "The worst thing is that the governments are really pushing this source of energy onto everyone because it's so cheap for them. I don't understand how people can be so stupid that they don't realise what a bad idea that is."

"You're one of those tree-hugger types, huh." Harley said. She squirted another tomato sauce packet onto the bowl of chips.

Pam laughed. "I hate it when people say that." She reached over and grabbed a handful of Harley's chips and shoved them in her mouth. "It makes environmentalism sound like some kind of fetish."

Harley snorted. "I never really got into all that stuff, honestly. I mean sure, like, global warmings a bitch and everything, but it just seems like environmentalism and giving to charities and that has turned into a trend. I think people should be more worried about problems in their own country before the concern themselves with the whole world."

"But environmental issues affect EVERYONE." Pam took another sip of orange juice from the glass. "I mean really, I know it sounds really evil but I really don't give a shit about human rights if it doesn't directly affect me. Humanity is the source of the world's problems, after all."

Harley's eyes widened. "That's a bit shallow, en't it Red?"

"I know." Pam admitted. "But it's true. I don't like people. I'm not a people person like you are. It's why you're in a clinic talking to people and I'm in a laboratory talking to plants. They're easier to talk to because you know they're not going to tell anyone what you tell them."

Harley laughed. "Sure you don't want me to take a look at that brain o' yours, Pammy? Sounds like you need a little therapy." She knocked on the side of Pam's head teasingly. Pam winced.

"Shut up, _Harlene._" Pamela teased. She knew Harley absolutely hated her full name because people could never spell it right.

"That's it Isley, you're DEAD." Harley swung her arm towards Pamela's face.

"I don't think so, Quinzelle." Pam dodged her friend's attack and threw a stage punch in Harley's direction. Harley swung her head back as Pam's fist hit the air a few inches in front of her face. Harley and Pam often had play-fights like this. It was one of the odd things that they did with each other, often for no reason. Their friendship was strange, but they both felt a deep connection to each other, like they had been sisters in a past life. Most people thought they WERE sisters, even though they looked nothing alike. It was hard to believe they'd only known each other for a few weeks.


	3. The Nature of Evil

Chapter Three: Night Out

Chapter Three: The Nature of Evil

Pam sat up on the windowsill of her dormitory. It was late, but despite the hour of the night, the lights from the city still danced in the distance like huge groups of artificial stars. She wasn't used to the noise. Things closed early where Pam was from. She used to be able to see the lights from Seattle across the harbour, but the city lights had never been this close, and the city had never been this loud.

"I hate this city." She sighed, pulling the elastic out of her hair and chucking it carelessly on the ground.

"Join the club." Harley chuckled.

"It's beyond me why anyone comes here." Pam mused. "It's so….so….I dunno, what would you call it?"

"Shitty?" Harley joked. "Is that it? Jeez, Pam, if you hate Gotham so much why don't you just leave?"

Pam shrugged. "It was available. I was always homeschooled, so it was hard for me to get recognised by good universities. Gotham was the only college that I could get into."

Pam hopped down from the windowsill and grabbed her hairbrush.

"How 'bout you, Harley? Why did you choose Gotham?"

"I came for the criminal element." Harley explained. "I got into Psychology because I want to unlock the nature of evil. Why good people do bad things and all. You can study criminal psychology at any old university, but Gotham seemed like the perfect place to see the common American psychopath in its prime natural environment."

Pam couldn't help but grin at the analogy. "Like what do you mean?"

"What?"

"What makes Gotham City's criminals so different from criminals in, say, Las Vegas?"

"I don't know." Harley shrugged. "But they are definitely more interesting. Take…this guy for example," Harley reached into her portfolio and pulled out a newspaper clipping to show to her room mate. "They call him 'The Penguin.'"

Pam examined the photo on the page. It was black-and-white, and it showed a short, round man in a Victorian-style dinner suit and top hat with ratty black hair and a hooked nose. To Pamela, he didn't look threatening, but what did she know.

"His real name is Oswald Cobblepot, of the wealthy Cobblepot family. He's a master jewel thief who trains birds to commit crimes for him."

"He sounds like a real nutter, all right." Pam laughed. "Got any more pictures I can look at?"

Harley nodded. She pulled out another newspaper clipping. This photo was in colour. It was a photo of a man who seemed to have an invisible line down the centre of his body. On his right side, he looked like an ordinary man, with neat hair and a smart grey business suit, but on his left side, he looked more like a corpse. His skin was covered in scars and burns, and his eyelids, lips and a good portion of his cheek were rotted away- exposing his left eye socket, face muscles and part of his skull. On this side, his suit was splattered with black and red paint. A chill went down Pam's spine.

"Yuech, who's _that?_" She cringed.

"Harvey Two-Face." Harley said, her voice hushed and exited, like a child telling a ghost story. "He used to be the district attorney, you know. As the story goes, he had an innocent man sent to prison. After the trial, the guy ambushed him in the parking lot and dumped a big thing of Hydrochloric acid on him. He survived, but the acid burned off allot of his skin. He went nuts after that." Harley paused for dramatic effect. "The people at Arkham Asylum say they can hear him in his cell. They say that the two sides argue with each other."

"That's creepy." Pamela said.

"Yeah, I know." Harley said, grinning. "The really interesting thing is, allot of Gotham's worst criminals come from unlikely places- businessmen, actors, members of the upper-class, even members of government! It's scary, when you think about it. The people who you least expect can just…turn evil. Just like that." She snapped her fingers. "And that's what I want to research. That's why I came to Gotham."


	4. Night Out

Chapter Four: Night Out

Chapter Four: Night Out

"I know what you need."

Harley looked at Pamela like she'd just had an epiphany.

"I know what you need." She repeated, pointing her partially chewed pencil in her friend's direction.

"What?"

"You've been sort of down lately, I've noticed." Harley continued. "And I know why."

"Well, Doctor Quinzelle, what's your diagnosis?" Pam said sarcastically. She didn't look up from the book she was reading, but she could guess what Harley's expression would've looked like.

Harley 'hmm'ed thoughtfully and turned her head to one side.

"In my expert opinion, I think you have an acute case of what we experts like to call 'boredom'."

"Oh really?" Pam finally looked up. "Well, doctor, what do you prescribe?"

"We really need to get out of the college." Harley said. "It's starting to be like claustrophobia."

"I know, it's terrible." Pamela sighed and put her book away. It was a cold day and they were sitting in a small, cosy alcove of the library to escape the oncoming winter.

"How long has it been since we've actually gone out?" Harley asked. "2 weeks, Maybe 3?"

Pamela nodded. "It's this weather." She lied. She was actually quite comfortable with the cold, it didn't bother her. She wasn't the type who reacted to the weather, like the human equivalent of an evergreen…whatever that was.

"More like 'It's this city'." Harley corrected. There was no hope trying to lie to Harley, it was like she was psychic.

Pamela nodded.

"2 months and you're _still_ not used to it?"

She nodded again. "It's very different here."

Her comment went ignored. "We should go shopping." Harley said, standing up from the couch they were sitting on. "Y'know, I can't believe I haven't shown you the mall. Gotham's mall is fantastic. 10-screen cinema, games arcade and 600 specialty stores. You'll LOVE it."

Pam wasn't the mall-going type. Sometimes at home, she and a bunch of girl friends would drive into the city and go shopping, but she never really liked it. Shopping was a tedious exercise for Pam, she felt comfortable just wearing the same light brown tunic and patched blue jeans every day. Besides, shopping centres weren't sustainable developments, and people needed to learn they could get by just fine on what they needed alone. But Harley seemed interested, and at that point anywhere seemed more appealing than the Gotham University library- so Pam agreed to join her best friend for an afternoon on the town.

Pamela had been cooped up inside for so long, only leaving the college campus when she absolutely needed to, that she'd almost forgotten how big Gotham was. The streets wound around each other in an intricate labyrinth of tarmac, sandstone, glass and metal. The whole city buzzed with the sounds of cars, people, trains and all manner of things. The air was thick with a rainbow of different smells- cars and trucks burning petrol, hot dog kiosks, all amplified by the chilled climate. Pamela had made a point from her arrival to the city to limit her contact with the outside as much as possible, but now that she and Harley were out here, walking the busy streets of Gotham, surrounded by bright lights and hundreds- or thousands- of other people, she found that it had a rhythm and a strange beauty of its own.

"It's this way." Harley directed Pamela towards the large acropolis of Gotham Square, crowded with people despite the intense cold. They crossed the paved square towards the opening to Gotham Mall.

"C'mon, Red." Harley chirped, running up ahead of her friend like an over-exited child. "Let's go inside!"

Pamela smirked and ran up behind Harley. This was actually fun, despite how much she initially hated the idea. It wasn't so much the thrill of getting out of school campus for an afternoon, or the buzzing excitement of discovering something new, but it was Harley that made it fun. Harley was the closest friend Pamela had ever had, and her constant humour and optimism made even the darkest of skies seem blue.

For the rest of the afternoon, Harley dragged Pam into various stores, picked out things that she liked, found things for Pam to try on and took spontaneous mobile phone photos of the outfits they tried on.

"You look good in green." Harley would continually say, grabbing more and more clothes for Pamela to try on. "It goes with the orange of your hair."

They didn't end up buying anything much, as the budget of your average college freshman didn't easily accommodate for random shopping sprees. But that didn't stop Harley from examining every available product that caught her interest. Pamela found it amusing that the two of them were so different. Not allot of the stores caught Pam's eye- the clothes were too flashy for her taste.

But there was one place that did get her attention.

It was a small, unassuming little store, with no name printed on the sign, only the image of a large yellow sun that looked like an illuminated picture from an old bible. The door was held open by a large bucket full of oriental-style parasols, and statues of Hindu deities were displayed behind beaded curtains in the shop window.

"Funny." Harley said with a tone of curiosity. "I come down to this area all the time, but I never notice that place."

"Let's go in." Pamela said. "I think it looks interesting."

The first thing that Pamela noticed when she walked into the shop was the smell. The overwhelming scents of sandalwood, sage, and lavender hit her nose the second she walked in. It was hotter inside than out in the mall, and much darker, with almost no light save for a few scattered multicoloured candles casting an eerie glow over the shop merchandise. A CD in an unidentifiable eastern language played softly in the background. The shop was empty except for herself, Harley and the shopkeeper- a woman in a flowing red skirt with long, unkempt brown hair who was currently re-organising a bookcase on the other side of the room.

"Were you looking to buy something?" She asked.

"No, we were just browsing, thank you." Harley replied hastily.

The shopkeeper nodded and returned to her work.

The shop was some sort of a new-age curio store, something that belonged in a Harry Potter novel. It stocked things like lunar calenders, essential oils, incense burners and self-help books with bizarre titles like 'How to Find Inner Peace by Connecting with your Past Lives' and 'Spirit Guide to Familiars and Totem Animals'.

"Harley, check this out." Pamela called. Harley turned around, her arms and neck covered in gold and silver bangles.

"Look at this book: 'Connecting with Spirits for Novices'."

Harley snorted. "These all sound like 'For Dummies' books of the paranormal."

Pamela picked up another book to look at. It was an old-style leather-bound book, with no title and fancy illuminated designs down the sides of the cover. Pamela flipped through the pages.

"Looks like an old bible." Harley commented.

"I think it's a grimoire." Pamela said.

"What?"

"It's like a big spell book." Pam turned the book over and checked the barcode.

"$25.50." She said. "Think I should buy it?"

"Thinking about making some magic?" Harley said with a laugh.

Pamela shrugged.

"Maybe."


End file.
